By Dideka Njemla
The Makana Municiplaity is replacing existing water meters with smart meters to minimise water loss in and around the city. These interventions come after many residents highlighted concerns over the town’s ongoing water crisis. One of the most recent collective actions included a peaceful protest in which residents from several areas in Makhanda voiced their grievances. Through this public action, held in February, Makhandans demanded that the municipality implement immediate measures to ensure a stable and sufficient water supply.
“To improve service delivery and reduce water losses, Makana Local Municipality will start installing domestic smart meters in various areas in Makhanda in consultation with residents,” said the municipality. On 17 March, the Makana municipality met with residents from wards 4 and 8, where the project is scheduled to begin.
Makana’s spokesperson, Anele Mjekula, commented on the necessity of the intervention and said the domestic smart water meters will enable several advantages for the municipality and its residents. “The existing water meters have reached their lifespan and need to be replaced to ensure accurate meter readings and detection of water leaks,” said Mjekula in a statement.
These smart water devices – with an expected lifespan of 7 years – will be deployed across other wards over three financial years. A single financial year starts on 1 March and extends to 28/29 February of the following year. Resourced through the Water Services Infrastructure Grant (WSIG), this project will facilitate the installation of 1540 smart water meters this financial year, with the rollout beginning in wards 4 and 8.
Benefits of the smart water system stated by the municipality:
- Water usage and trends can be monitored.
- Leak and burst alarm notifications for improved water management.
- Quick water leak detections and monitoring of water use.
- The meters contain sensors and will shut down if tampered with.
- The system will detect water usage and faults and send alerts when necessary.
- Uses consumer devices – electronic devices used by individuals for household purposes – for notices to the community.
Installation process:
- The contractor will inform homeowners 1 – 2 days before installation.
- The contractor will request and arrange property access to install the new wall-mounted smart prepaid meter and remove the old meter.
- Educational awareness campaigns about the smart prepaid water meters will be conducted.
- Residents might be required to provide property access for the team to locate and expose old pipes.
- Water disruption for 2 hours maximum, while the old meter is read and removed.
- Once water is reconnected, the pipes are left exposed for 1-2 days for inspection by an engineer.
- Once approved, the area in the property will be restored within 1 week.
Speaking on the municipality’s approach, Democratic Alliance, Ward 4 councillor, Geoff Embling said, “Nearly all Makana’s rates come from Wards 4 and 8, which indicates that the project aims to increase municipal revenue by enabling regular reading of water meters. In his statement, he further said, “It is debatable, though, whether ‘blanket’ installations of smart water meters in Wards 4, 8, and 9 is the smartest solution to increasing revenue.”
“Makana’s revenue will increase somewhat when it can read meters regularly in rate-paying areas, but Makana may increase its revenue more if it focuses on replacing thousands of leaking water meters around the city with smart water meters,” said Embling. He also suggested that the municipality “provide the contractor with a record of all the leaking water meters,” as a first step.
